Cales Coves

Menorca: Archaeology of Cales Coves

Following the Torralba road towards the south, we find the road to Cala en Porter which we must take towards San Luis to then turn at the first turning on the right. In the cliffs that make up the two coves, some ninety caves are artificially carved into the rock. It is the most important talayotic necropolis in Menorca.

The first caves began to be carved in the Bronze Age and inside them, the rite of inhumation was carried out, while the large and accessible ones are from the Iron Age and combined burial rites with lime and cremations. Practically all the caves have been excavated and the material is deposited in the Museum of Menorca. In the Roman period, it was no longer used as a necropolis, but it was still visited on the kalends of May, as testified by the tombstones carved in one of the caves, the des Jurat. Cales Coves was also important as an anchorage for ships, so its seabed was full of archaeological remains, which have also been extracted and taken to the Museum.